


But You Were A Pornstar

by moonpenis (Reyn)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern: Still Have Powers, Bloodbending, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Masturbation, Porn Video, Porn Watching, Sexual Fantasy, Sexual Torture, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-23
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-02-26 16:39:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 17,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2658995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reyn/pseuds/moonpenis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zuko stumbles across an old porn video he saved on his computer during his college years that features a young water bending female. Interests piqued, he seeks out more of her videos and never thinks to question what became of her until he stumbles across her working for his uncle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It took Zuko the better part of three years to catch on to why his sister had always accused him of having a preference to Water Tribe girls. And even then, his understanding only dawned upon him by total fluke.  
  
He had been in the process of transferring and deleting files off his old laptop to donate when he stumbled across a forgotten folder buried deep within old dissertation research. In it were two files: a video, and a text document.  
  
He opened the text document first and found an angry note from his younger sister.   
  
_Gross, Zuko. Hide your porn somewhere practical, next time._  
  
There was more to the note, but Zuko’s curiosity had been piqued and he went back to the video. Was it really porn? He never downloaded porn. The video’s full title of ‘www.collegebenderfun.org WATER TRIBE BARELY LEGAL BENDS WATER JETS TO CUM’ certainly seemed to adhere to the fact.  
  
He stared at the video dubiously. During his final year of school, he often ended his late nights of writing and research with an hour or so of pointless porn browsing. On the rare occasion when the internet just wasn’t up to speed, he would download a promising video here or there to view later, but he always left them on his desktop to immediately delete afterwards.  
  
Figuring the file had saved to his research folder by fluke, he glanced at the time and decided it wouldn’t hurt to check it out.  
  
The video started with a black screen, and once again the website was advertised. It faded out to the sound of splashing water. A few attempts at creative photography were made with a close up of water, a wet knee, and long, wavy brown hair being pulled up into a messy bun. None of it was very sexy, and Zuko wondered just what had him intrigued enough to warrant downloading this particular video.  
  
Finally the camera panned out to the girl, who had just finished settling herself down in a large tub. Her pale blue eyes were large and her face seemed so young as she glanced up at the camera and gave it a quick smile before looking back down at the water. Zuko figured it was nerves, especially since her arms were crossed before her, blocking out the view of her breasts.   
  
With a deep breath the girl relaxed and closed her eyes, relaxing her arms into the water. Zuko’s eyes immediately strayed to her breasts, which were plump and heavy, yet still seemed small enough to fit nicely into his hand. He could feel his interest being stirred and paused the video so that he could hunt down the tissues were buried behind numerous folders for work.  
  
Once resettled, he pushed down his sweatpants enough to free himself and started up the video once more.  
  
The girl began to move her arms and the water surrounding her was quick to respond. She pulled thin tendrils up her lower leg to trace up her knee and back down into the tub. With her fingers spread, she continued to direct it towards her torso, where it crept up and slithered around the mounds of her breast, causing her nipples to pebble before encasing them.  
  
There was a low muttering off-screen, and the girl sank deeper into the tub. She spread her legs until her knees were resting against the white porcelain edges. She stopped waterbending and used her own hand to squeeze and play with her breast while the other sank below the water, reaching down between her legs.  
  
Zuko could feel himself filling out at the sight and dropped his hand down to help his cock along.  
  
The girl’s teasing didn’t last for very long, and soon she had both arms raised once more above the water. With a few circular movements, the water grew agitated and slowly began to streamline into several directed whirlpools around her body. Impressed, Zuko’s eyebrows went up. It took a lot of talent to have that much precise control over a contained element.  
  
With the whirlpools still going, the girl’s focus moved to the one spinning between her legs. It seemed to waver, then crept towards her body. The girl shifted her hips a bit, brought the current closer, and with a soft inhale, Zuko knew contact had been made.  
  
He immediately looked to her face, where he could see the blue of her iris give way to the black of her pupil before her eyes slipped closed. From there, it turned into a waiting game.   
  
There wasn’t much to take in since all the action was happening underwater, but Zuko had no problems with admiring the way the girl’s leg would occasionally jump, or the furrow in her brow, or the way her lips would part, only for her bottom lip to be pulled up and bitten between teeth. His favorite so far was the way her body would sometimes curl in on itself, only to immediately stretch back out. At one point, she tipped her head back, and Zuko’s eyes caught sight of a blue choker wrapped around her neck with a circular charm attached to it. He recognized it as something customary to the Water Tribe and briefly wondered if she had been told to wear it to further accentuate her exoticness.  
  
He was brought back to the moment by a gasp, the sound shooting straight through him and causing his dick to throb in his hand. The girl’s eyes slipped opened and remained heavy-lidded as she stared down at the water with her hand hovered above it, twitching slightly. She soon let out another gasp that turned into a full-fledged groan, and Zuko’s hand began to speed up.  
  
She was getting close. She had to be. The video was nearly three-fourths of the way through and her panting was constantly being interrupted by gasps and low moans.  
  
Her free hand moved to massage her breast for a bit before gripping the edge of the tub.  
  
“ _Close_ ,” she gasped out.  
  
Zuko reached blindly for a tissue, refusing to look away from the way the waterbender struggled to concentrate enough to keep the jet of water going when her legs were trembling against the sides of the tub.  
  
With a subtle movement of her fingers, the gurgling of the water intensified and she gasped, her other hand grabbing the tub’s rim as her eyes flew wide and her back arched.  
  
Zuko’s mouth hung open, completely transfixed, barely noting the slight burn in his forearm at the speed he was pumping himself to.  
  
Her orgasm was slow to overtake her, her mouth shaped into a wide ‘oh’ as she continuously cried out, louder and louder still until her eyes finally rolled back and her body began undulate against the pleasure that was washing through it. Her breasts heaved up above the water, her hands pulled her back down, her hips caused waves as the fought to grind against essentially nothing.  
  
Zuko’s own orgasm ripped through him like a punch to the gut, hard enough and with enough of a surprise to pull out a cry of his own. He was quick to clench his jaw, but that did nothing to stop the sounds from continuing within his throat as he came.  
  
By the time he was done and had gained enough mental capacity to clean himself off and throw away the tissue, the video had long since ended. He leaned back in his chair and drew in a slow breath. Despite feeling fully satiated, he reread the video’s website plug and made a mental note of it. If it really was a site geared towards college kids, there was a chance this had been a one-time thing for the girl, but Zuko figured it would never hurt to check.  
  
And maybe even save a few more videos to his current laptop for easy access.  



	2. Chapter 2

Zuko barely cast a glance at the woman bowing low before him in greeting. He was far too focused on the explosive ire he was feeling towards his uncle.  
  
“Uncle, when I told you to organize your life, I was talking about work! Hiring a personal shopper to keep you company and watch the clock while you’re dallying about in antique shops is a step in the completely opposite direction!”  
  
“Nonsense!” Iroh argued. “Katara here is very good at what she does! She’s my new personal assistant!”  
  
“You already have a personal assistant!”  
  
“Bah.” Iroh waved a dismissive hand and shuffled over to a display of odd statues. “June was terrible. How many appointments did I miss because she was never around to watch the clock for me?”  
  
Zuko’s arm flew out in the direction of the shop’s entrance. “That’s because you were never at work for her to do her job properly!”  
  
“Well it’s not like I didn’t always offer for her to accompany me.” Iroh’s shoulders slumped.  “She just thought I was a creepy old man out to take advantage of her. But clearly that isn’t the case, is it, Miss Katara?”

Steam came shooting out from Zuko’s nose and he let out a growl. “Uncle, you are — I just wasted three hours of company time hunting you down! We need to go back to work!”  
  
“No.”  
  
“What!?”  
  
Without breaking Zuko’s dangerous gaze, Iroh reached out and grabbed the nearest statue from the display. “Not until I buy this.” And with that, Iroh marched off to the cashier.  
  
“You don’t even like monkeys!” Zuko yelled at the old man’s retreating back. He looked back at the new personal assistant, whose head was still lowered. Zuko would have admired the respect if her shoulders hadn’t been shaking with barely-controlled mirth. “Make sure he comes straight back to work after he gets that stupid thing,” he ordered. “If not, you better believe I’ll see to it that you’re fired.”  
  
Not waiting for her response, he turned on his heel and stomped out.  
  
+  
  
By the time he got home, Zuko was exhausted. The only bright side to his day was that his uncle had miraculously listened to his instructions and showed up at the office. Unfortunately, this meant he was around to badger Zuko with countless questions about everything he had missed for the day and various projects he had no clue about.  
  
It was times like these that Zuko wished he had a girlfriend. Someone to come home to and was willing to allow him to just work out all of his stress with a nice hot pounding.   
  
As it was, all he could do was collapse on the couch, stare at the ceiling, and wonder what to do for dinner. It was a pathetic reality of his life; one that he fought by allowing his eyes to slip closed and imagine what it would be like to have someone to come home to.  
  
The apartment would probably smell a bit girlier, either with scented candles, lingering perfume, or hair products. It would be a scent he could chase as she came to greet him by wrapping his arms tight around her and burying his nose into the crook of her neck. He would be quick to let his true intentions be known, though, with hard kisses up to her jawline.  
  
She would ask if he had a rough day.  
  
He would murmur out a pathetic yes and she would laugh and press her body to his and allow him to spin them around and pin her to a wall. Or maybe sit her up on the counter if she had been making dinner. Or bend her over the dining room table.  
  
With a deep sigh, Zuko opened his eyes and hauled himself off to the kitchen to make his own damn dinner.  
  
+  
  
When Zuko opened up his laptop an hour before bed, it had been with the intention of checking his email so that he could be prepared for whatever tomorrow may have in store for him. However, after reading the first message and seeing that it was something that would involve his uncle, he decided he had enough for the day and promptly clicked right back out.   
  
Opening up his web browser, he frowned at all his bookmarked links and chose to open up a new tab instead. For several minutes, the cursor flashed as he tried to think of a website to visit. He tapped the ‘a’ on the keyboard and _Air Nomad Travels_ popped up. He didn’t feel like vacation searching, so he cleared the web address bar and tried letter ‘b’.   
  
_BBA: The Bending Battle Association_. It wouldn’t hurt to see when the next pro-bending match was scheduled for. Maybe check it out at one of the bars after work.  
  
Not quite feeling up to the idea of planning something that involved socializing, he deleted the ‘b’ and tried ‘c’.  
  
 _College Bender Fun XXX_  
  
Zuko’s fingers hovered over the keyboard for a moment before hitting ‘enter’.  
  
It had been a bit of a task finding more of that particular waterbender’s videos. She had remained uncredited in the one on his old computer, and working with the search parameters of “waterbender female” wasn’t exactly helpful, even if he did know to look through the archives for videos that were several years old.  
  
It was through pure luck that he managed to find her channel. The clip he stumbled upon was a home video, one he had settled on simply because he was horny and the body in the preview image looked enticing.   
  
The girl was in front of a webcam, seated naked in a desk chair with her legs spread over the armrests and her head cut out from the shot. Inserted within her was a water-filled dildo that she manipulated in and out with ease, using her free hands to play with her breasts and grip at her thighs.   
  
It wasn’t until halfway through the video when she had slouched down for a better angle that Zuko noticed the choker, leading him to immediately stop what he was doing and pause the video. After squinting at poor-quality freeze frame for a bit, he came to the conclusion that it was the same necklace and immediately clicked the girl’s username to see if his suspicions could be confirmed.  
  
Her channel was one that only offered a few free videos and images to entice people into getting a paid subscription. While Zuko respected that (she had probably been trying to earn the extra cash for college books), he wasn’t desperate enough to throw his money away when there was enough free porn on the internet. His curiosity had been satisfied, he knew where to find her, he could now move on with his sorry excuse for a sex life.  
  
Tonight he browsed through the latest uploads, teasing his arousal until he found his release with a video of a waterbender who was milked through multiple orgasms. Her enthusiasm was too much not to get off to.  
  
As he threw away his tissue and closed out of the site, Zuko found himself wondering if maybe he did have a preference for waterbenders.  
  
  



	3. Chapter 3

The rest of the week went by far more smoothly than Zuko would have ever believed possible. His uncle, despite disappearing as often as ever, was at the office at least fifty percent of the time, which was a drastic improvement for him.  
  
Zuko took full advantage of what he was sure was just a fluke to drill his uncle on what had been going on and advice for further investments, projects, and a potential merger that one of the board members was pushing for.  
  
“This proposal is so full of adjectives, I don’t even understand what point this person is trying to make!” Iroh complained. “Who wrote this?”  
  
“That would be Zhao.” Zuko put down his own copy of the proposal. “From what I’ve been able to tell, he’s mostly excited about getting to rename the company we acquire if you choose to approve this.”  
  
“Hmph. Tell him to write it again and to make more sense this time. With how sugarcoated this is, it makes me think he’s trying to hide a rotten scent.” Iroh suddenly stopped waving the report about to sniff the air. “Ah, speaking of scents!”  
  
The door to his office was pushed open and in walked a rather pretty waterbender carefully balancing a teapot and cups on a tray.  
  
Briefly recalling his potential preference, Zuko wondered if it applied to real women and not just the sexual ideal. He made no efforts to hide his staring as she walked by him and bent over to set out the tea.  
  
Her hair was pulled back in a long beaded braid that rested over her shoulder. Her figure was one of soft curves that were fully accentuated by the blouse and pencil skirt she had on. Objectively, Zuko had no problem in admitting a potential attraction.  
  
He pulled his gaze away once she began to straighten, the move putting him in the peripheral of her vision.  
  
“Thank you, Katara! You already steeped the tea and everything?” Iroh asked, tucking his papers away.  
  
“Yes.”  
  
Zuko found himself doing a double take as his uncle flat out pouted.   
  
“But I wanted to make the tea.”  
  
Katara gave him a reassuring smile. “And find out which teas we’re low on and go on a hunt to restock the entire company’s supply? I spared you the trouble and made a list.”  
  
Zuko snickered at his uncle’s wide-eyed look. It seemed like this new assistant was a bit too clever for his uncle’s own good.  
  
“Well?” Iroh demanded. “Where’s the list?”  
  
Zuko prayed it was under lock and key and not carelessly written somewhere that could be found with a bit of snooping.  
  
“On my phone.” Katara brushed her braid from her shoulder. “I promise to email it to you after you finish your meeting.”  
  
All amusement Zuko had felt over the exchange dwindled at the sight of Katara’s neck. Wrapped around it was a dark blue choker; one that looked eerily familiar. But for the life of him, he couldn’t remember why.  
  
He blinked when he realized Katara was returning his stare questioningly.  
  
“Sorry,” he apologized. And now that he was getting a good look at her face, the déjà vu had grown into more of a nagging feeling. “We haven’t met before, have we?”  
  
Katara frowned. “We did earlier this week when you were yelling at Iroh in that antiques shop. The owner felt sorry for him and gave him a discount on his purchase.”  
  
Zuko sent a quick glare at the large monkey statue with ruby eyes that was sitting on a pedestal against the wall. That must have been it. He had been far too upset then to really bother to commit Katara to memory, then.  
  
“Right. Well, you’ll have to excuse my temper from then. I hadn’t seen him in almost a week and when he started texting me pictures of oddities and various food during such a busy time here at work, I might have snapped.”  
  
Katara’s jaw dropped. “ _That’s_ what you were doing with your phone??”  
  
Iroh was too busy sipping his tea to answer.  
  
“Anyway, your necklace,” Zuko pointed up to it. “Is that a common piece of Water Tribe jewelry?”  
  
Katara’s hand flew up to the choker. “Uh, no, actually.” She seemed a bit thrown by the subject change. “At least, not anymore. It used to be common practice for men to hand carve a shell to weave into a betrothal necklace for the girl they wished to marry. But the custom is so archaic that when the my grandmother was given one by a young man whom her family had chosen for her, she buried everyone in snow in a fit of temper and ran away.” Katara smiled proudly, oblivious to the mild looks of horror from the two men. “This has become a pretty unique family heirloom.”  
  
Zuko didn’t buy the story for a minute. He knew he had seen it somewhere. On a celebrity? In a movie?   
  
Pushing himself to his feet, he moved to stand before Katara. “May I?” he asked, bringing his hand up, but not touching until he was given permission to do so.  
  
Katara blushed at their sudden closeness, but nodded.  
  
Zuko kept his touch gentle as his fingers slipped under the large circular shell. It was a light blue, with what looked like stylized water and waves carved deeply into its surface. It certainly seemed authentic…perhaps he had been mistaken.  
  
Zuko drew his gaze back up to Katara, who was watching him with a wide, almost dazed expression.  
  
Feeling a boost of confidence at the look, he gave her a crooked smirk. “It’s nice.”  
  
Katara’s eyes darted down to his lips and back up to his eyes. “Thank you…”  
  
Iroh cleared his throat loudly. “Zuko, if you insist on keeping me here, the least you could do is ensure we actually get work done.”  
  
Smile still on his face, Zuko moved to sit back down, making it a point to thank Katara for the delicious tea before she left. And if he turned in his seat to watch her leave, well, it wasn’t like his uncle’s flat stare could do him any harm.  
  
+  
  
He hadn’t been mistaken.   
  
The origins of the choker didn’t hit him until he was home, eating his takeout dinner, and watching the highlights of the last few pro-bending matches.  
  
The revelation was enough to have him setting down his noodles and scrambling to his office for his laptop. He brought it back to the living room and while waiting for the porn site to load, recalled the video he had saved. He minimized his web browser and hunted the file down instead. Upon clicking it open, he jumped forward past the opening credits and creative shots to right when the camera pans out on the girl in the tub.  
  
And sure enough, there was Katara, sending the camera a quick smile while covering her breasts.  



	4. Chapter 4

Zuko was at a complete loss of what to do. As soon as he recognized her, he closed out the video and stared at the file in complete alarm. His uncle’s new assistant did porn! Did Uncle know??  
  
Well, that was a pointless question. Uncle Iroh would probably care less even if he knew. And then he would want to know why Zuko knew.   
  
As a healthy young man, Zuko knew he had nothing to be ashamed of. It was porn! It was on the internet! It was free for anyone to view! Except Katara’s videos _weren’t_ free for anyone to view.  
  
Before he made the conscious thought to do so, Zuko pulled back up the web browser and searched his way to her channel. ThePaintedLady. There was nothing in that name that could be easily associated to Katara. Hell, there was nothing in the videos that could be associated to Katara. Right?  
  
Out of a twisted sense of duty, Zuko clicked his way through the public images.  
  
All of them were body shots, with her head carefully cut off. Several were of rather enticing bikinis. One was an extremely sexy firefighter Halloween costume with the caption “Yes, there is a video to go with this, but you’ll have to subscribe to see ;)”.   
  
It was the final photo that had Zuko’s mouth going dry. Her head was still out of the shot, but her hair was down in loose waves and her arm was being held under her breasts, almost as if she were cupping them. Wrapped around her forearm was red ribbon, which matched perfectly with the red lace lingerie she was wearing. And damn, if she didn’t look good in red.  
  
Zuko’s free hand reached down with the intention to adjust himself into a more comfortable placement, but ended up staying there, rubbing his cock softly as he stared at the image.  
  
The one thing he did notice was that the choker had been missing from all of the pictures. Yes, it was entirely possible it had just been cropped out, but that was still enough for plausible deniability as to this woman being Katara.   
  
The excuse felt flimsy at best, and Zuko went to the public videos. He had already seen the one with the dildo and intentionally avoided it. Maybe he would get lucky and the necklace would be missing from the other videos. Then it could easily be argued this was all a case of mistaken identity.  
  
He clicked on a video titled ‘Just dancing’.  
  
It started with a closeup of her cleavage, which was safely tucked away in a tight-fitting shirt. It seemed like she was still in the process of setting things up on the laptop when she tapped a button on her keyboard and the music started up. It was one of those hit songs that had been all over the radio several years ago and as the opening chords played, Katara – or possibly not-Katara – angled the camera down just slightly and backed up several paces. It was just enough to see the majority of her clothed body, but still not her head, which was something Zuko was perfectly fine with at the moment.   
  
And then she started to dance.  
  
Zuko’s eyes were glued to the way she moved. Her hips weren’t just swaying in time to the beat; they were moving in a way that seemed to command it. Her torso twisted, she spun, she widened her stance, bent her knees, and there was her ass, moving in a way that had Zuko sorely wishing she was in his lap. She ran her hands through her fingers and kept them there for a moment, the action pulling her hair up and giving the camera a better view of the curve of her waist.  
  
Zuko began to squeeze and massage his mostly-hard cock in earnest.  
  
The girl straightened and turned back around, and began to pull off some rather ridiculous moves that had Zuko laughing softly at how bad they were. But soon, that refrain of the song was over and she went back to dancing with excelling skill.  
  
But then she took it one step further and began to play with the hem of her shirt. She tugged at it, let it snap back into place, ran her hands over it, dragged her fingers up under it, teased the flat planes of her stomach, just to pull the shirt back down. Zuko swallowed thickly, wondering – hoping – she would take it off.  
  
Instead of following through on Zuko’s wish, her hands began to wander. Up her sides, squeezing her breasts together, over her shoulders, through her hair, back down her sides, over her hips, across her stomach.   
  
Zuko had been to a club all of twice in his life, and the sheer amount of public, clothed sex that seemed to happen had made him uncomfortable enough to stick to the sidelines fighting back a boner that insisted on letting the world know how much it wanted to join in on the fun. But watching not-Katara dance and demonstrate how to touch…Zuko wouldn’t mind making a fool of himself if he had her guiding him while she moved against him like that. Her hands over his as she showed them where to go.  
  
And then one of her hands dipped down between her legs and _grabbed_.  
  
Zuko found himself temporarily unable to breathe past the lust that shot through his system. He was already fully hard, but that move had his cock jumping and straining in his hold.  
  
For a moment, he was distracted from the dancing, too focused on himself and the feelings coursing through him as he aided them along with rapid pumps.   
  
But then not-Katara’s hands were on her shirt again, pulling it up in earnest, and Zuko slowed his movements to watch, only to stop completely when, just as her shirt passed her bra, the video went black.  
  
 _Subscribe to see the full video ;P_  
  
Zuko remained frozen as the words faded in on the video, his eyes darting around the page until he found the designated button that would grant him full access.  
  
 _You know you want to_

His hand slowly began to move once more while his other dragged the arrow to hover over ‘Subscribe to ThePaintedLady’. Because yes, he really really did want to.

_And I really want you_  
  
Zuko’s finger twitched, but he yanked his hand back from the laptop’s trackpad just in time to prevent himself from actually clicking anything. Instead, he ran his hand through his hair, leaned back in his seat, and let out an explosive sigh.  
  
She…she was good. Really good. Zuko had never wanted to make such a frivolous purchase this badly in his life. But there was still a chance this was Katara.  
  
And damn, if there wasn’t a part of Zuko that was suddenly wishing it was.  
  
Body still feeling too hot, he went back to her public profile and clicked on the video of her with the dildo. He wondered if it was one of her early videos, since it seemed so basic compared to the one he just finished watching and the one he had of Katara in the tub.  
  
It was as if she had been in the middle of masturbating when hit with the idea of recording herself.   
  
Because there were times where she seemed aware of the camera, arching her back and moaning for show, and then there were times where it was as if she forgot about the potential audience, far more focused on angling the dildo so it hit her just right while massaging one of her breasts.  
  
Zuko was already far too turned on to really last, but when the video hit the mark where she slouched down and revealed the choker around her neck, he was still surprised that the flair of arousal was enough to send him messily over the edge.  
  
This…was probably going to be a problem.  



	5. Chapter 5

“Do you have any siblings?”  
  
Katara paused in her task of clicking backwards through the presentation slide to find a few key points she wanted to jot down for Iroh and sent him an odd smile.  
  
“I might. Why?”  
  
Zuko shrugged. The meeting was over, everyone had left except for him, and really, he could just argue that he was making conversation. Except that would be lying and Zuko had this horrible habit of not being able to come up with lies on the spot.  
  
In truth, he hadn’t been able to stop himself from constantly sneaking glances at Katara’s figure. That necklace was always around her neck and Zuko was left wondering if she ever took it off. Despite her business attire, Zuko could tell her body hadn’t changed much in the last few years. If, of course, that had been her body, her necklace, and her face.  
  
In the harsh light of day, Zuko was all for giving denial a chance. Because it was possible she had a sister. Or, better yet, a twin.  
  
Katara accepted his non-answer regardless.  
  
“Just an older brother,” she replied, her attention back on the projection.  
  
“Do you two look anything alike?” Zuko was stubbornly clinging to his hope.  
  
Katara let out a snort. “Sure, if you ignore his bulk, tiny beard, general man-stink, and sarcastic nature, I guess you could say we have similar eyes and smiles.”  
  
Zuko’s lips tugged down into a tiny frown. Well, the theory of doppelgangers still had yet to be scientifically disproven.  
  
“What about you?”  
  
Schooling his features into a wry grin, Zuko tapped his pen on the conference table. “I am the older brother. And I’d like to take official offense to the accusation of man-stink.”  
  
“You can’t take offense to facts,” Katara stated primly. “Just because your cologne smells amazing doesn’t mean underneath it all big brothers are just stinky oafs.”  
  
Inwardly preening over the compliment to his cologne, Zuko held up his pen for emphasis to his point of, “Not if we bathe regularly.”  
  
Katara stopped writing in her notepad to send him a very skeptical stare.  
  
“I bathe!” he defended immediately.  
  
Katara’s eyes narrowed and she straightened, putting down her notepad and pen to walk over to him.   
  
Zuko had no idea what she was doing, and the fleeting thought that she was planning on crawling into his lap at his bold statement had him turning his chair to face her.  
  
Then once she was in his lap, he would wrap his arms around her and pull her close while kissing her. And when that became too much and the chair became a hindrance, he would hoist her up, stand, and lay her down right there on the table, staying between her legs the entire time. He would push her dress up and grind right into her. He would grab her breast as her back arched. He would nibble at her neck to feel the vibrations of her moan.  
  
Instead, she stopped just before him, placed her hands on the arms of his chair, and leaned forward. Her face hovered just beside his ear and after a moment, she turned her head slightly towards him.  
  
“I can’t tell.”  
  
Heart rate skyrocketing, Zuko could no longer remember what their conversation was supposed to be about. Was she smoothly going to slide into his lap now? Kiss his ear? Caress his jaw?  
  
“Your cologne does too good of a job.”  
  
Zuko’s brow furrowed. What did that even mean? He turned his head to look at her.  
  
“You’re just going to have to find some other way to prove to me you bathe.”  
  
With shower sex?  Zuko had wanted to try shower sex once. And then he slipped, nearly fell, and his girlfriend at the time accused him of trying to kill the both of them and they were left taking a normal shower.  
  
It wasn’t until Katara was walking away that Zuko realized she had just sniffed him.  
  
That night, he watched her hot tub video three times, and got off to it twice.  
  
+  
  
This wasn’t okay. Zuko knew it wasn’t okay.   
  
It was one thing to masturbate to a stranger online. It was another when you knew the person.   
  
And while Zuko could argue that he didn’t _really_ know Katara, they were still coworkers who managed to hold small conversations and sometimes flirt when they had a free moment. And besides, he _wanted_ to get to know her.   
  
And not just intimately.  
  
He wanted to know what made her laugh and what kinds of food she enjoyed. Which holidays did she celebrate? When was her birthday? What kind of gifts did she like? What would it take to make her smile brightly instead of just politely smirk when he entered a room? What movies made her cry? What were her hobbies?  
  
These thoughts were driving him to distraction and he was left hardly getting any work done. His uncle had disappeared again, and taken Katara with him. Considering he hadn’t seen either of them in two days, this should have helped him focus, but all it did was make him angry.  
  
Where did his uncle go every time he disappeared? Why did he have to take Katara with him? June never had to leave the office when Uncle decided to wander off, so why did Katara?  
  
It was at the end of day three that Zuko decided to try and give Uncle a call. Just to make sure he was still alive. And maybe find out what he had been doing that required pulling Katara away from the office.  
  
It rang three times before the call went to voicemail and was followed by a text of ‘ _Out to dinner. I will call you back afterwards._ ’  
  
Zuko scowled at his phone. That never stopped his uncle before. Usually he was overjoyed when Zuko called during meals, just so he could boast about the food.  
  
‘ _What? Like a nice dinner?_ ’  
  
His glare didn’t lessen while waiting for a response.  
  
‘ _Yes. With a pretty lady. Now go away, you’re being rude._ ’  
  
‘ _With Katara?_ ’ Zuko stared at the message before deleting it. He wanted to know, but he didn’t want to know. The idea of Uncle dating anyone was almost too much to bear.  
  
The thought of him dating Katara was borderline ridiculous.  
  
Unless…  
  
What if Katara was a sex worker? And her little porn site had just been the beginning? What if from there she had started doing live feeds and private shows and had been offered a job as private escort and just never looked back?  
  
What if that was how Uncle had found her?  
  
What if that was her true job and that was why Uncle constantly dragged her off when he sought to escape the office?  
  
Zuko blanched.  
  
He had no way to prove such ludicrous thoughts, but he also had no way to disprove them, either.  
  
Unless, of course, there were hints left behind on Katara’s site.  
  
Zuko stared at his closed laptop and came to a decision. He started it up and went to the exact page that now popped up as a suggestion after typing only two letters into the address bar.  
  
Reaching for his wallet, Zuko fished out his credit card before clicking ‘Subscribe to ThePaintedLady’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait on this one. With the holidays coming up, my roommates and I have randomly decided to remodel various aspects of the house on top of decorating it. So between that, putting gifts together, and discovering the lovely zutara story '[Paper Clouds](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8900106/1/Paper-Clouds)', my writing time was a bit scarce this week.
> 
> I'll try to do better to keep everyone's spirits up for the holidays!!


	6. Chapter 6

Katara’s channel was flooded with content. Pictures, videos, blog postings, and even a small forum that seemed to serve as a comment/chat section.  
  
With the goal of finding out if Katara was a sex worker still firmly on his mind, Zuko’s first destination was the forums. Because, logically, that would be the best place to find the beginnings of the slippery slope into taking on private clientele. All it would take is one harmless question for the seed of the idea to be planted.  
  
Zuko was harshly reminded that he was on a porn site when he discovered the chat thread was mostly filled with disgustingly graphic praises, as well as inquiries and requests for when and what her new videos would feature. Nearly all the comments were left unanswered with the exception of a few that filled the full criteria of being polite, respectful, and used proper spelling and grammar.  
  
He managed to find one comment that asked for a one-on-one chat session. It had been courteously turned down with the excuse that she didn’t want to play favorites or get anyone’s hopes up over anything when the purpose of her channel was simply an expressive outlet. The following comment was from a different user who demanded an explanation for the man in her bloodbending video. While Katara herself hadn’t replied, several others came to her defense, saying it was just some poor sap who had been randomly picked for the video.  
  
Zuko was left frowning in both confusion and disbelief.  
  
Katara was a bloodbender?   
  
When it came to sex, bloodbending was something that was originally found in only the most advanced Kama Sutra manuals. Although nowadays, it was more or less only associated with BDSM. In fact, the term ‘bloodbender’ was commonly assigned to the more dominatrix-type masters, something Zuko only knew thanks to an old roommate who tended to over share the details on his relationships.  
  
As for the actual talent of bloodbending, that was something never publicly seen outside of the medical profession.  
  
Curiosity overwhelming his lingering jealousy, Zuko clicked out of the forum and went to Katara’s videos. His eyes widened at the sheer number of them. The brief thought that this was still an active channel was dashed when he noted the date for her most recent video was listed as three years ago.  
  
Scrolling through the multiple pages, Zuko kept an eye out for each title, trying to find anything that would hint at the darker contents within. When none came up, he tried the page’s search bar, only to find that it led him to a site-wide search. He nearly clicked back, but figured it wouldn’t hurt to browse through the short list of only sixty bloddbending videos.  
  
None of them were under her name, and of the seven that he opened, none of the girls featured had been her.  
  
Zuko went back to the forums, hoping for information he might have missed.  
  
Right away, he learned he was dealing with an old conversation – a little over a year old, to be more precise. As he followed the thread down, the argument was interrupted by someone asking what video everyone was talking about. ThePaintedLady had no such video on her channel. Was it something she had removed?  
  
The question was ignored for the next few comments until another poster responded with a link.  
  
Wary of porn viruses, Zuko did a quick check to make sure his anti-viral software was up-to-date before boldly clicking at the link.  
  
As he waited for the file to download, he had a moment of self-depreciation. The amount of work he was putting into this was ridiculous. Getting suspicious of Katara like this was ridiculous. Subscribing to her page to hunt down evidence against her was ridiculous.  
  
But before he was able to scold himself into just closing his laptop and walking away, the bouncing icon on his desktop informed him the download was complete. Without giving it a second thought, Zuko opened the movie file.  
  
It was clearly a home video, judging from the dim lighting and still camera angle. There was a man with tanned skin and wild hair lying nude on a large bed. His hands seemed to be bound to the headrest and he was blindfolded.  
  
Seconds later, a woman walked into the picture from behind the camera. She was clothed in a loose black negligee and wore her hair down. From the angle, it was hard to tell if it was Katara or not. It certainly looked like her, what with the wavy hair, tanned skin, and slim body. Although the way she was holding herself was different. It wasn’t as loose, sensual, and carefree.   
  
Without bothering to acknowledge the camera, the girl climbed onto the bed and straddled the man’s thighs.  
  
The man let out a happy moan that went ignored as the girl pulled back part of her hair and tied it up in a quick bun. Zuko drew in a sharp breath. With her hair no longer blocking her face, any doubts he had over the identity of this girl were gone.  
  
Katara’s face was drawn in concentration, even as she raised her arms over the man’s torso and closed her eyes.  
  
For a moment, she did nothing other than breathe. And then, slowly, her hands began to move. They traced the air over the man’s stomach and chest, moving out and in, out and in, always coming back to the center over his heart. As she did this, her fingers twitched and contorted into sharp, twisted postures, that seemed to have a direct correlation on how heavily the man was breathing.  
  
And then Katara’s eyes snapped open, just as the man let out a cut off moan.  
  
Fingers still distorted, her hands made their way down past his stomach, moving in a wave-like rhythm that seemed to match that of a heartbeat. As they drew nearer to the man’s hips, his penis began to fill and lengthen in eager jumps until it was standing at full attention.  
  
“Wow. You just—” The man’s awed exclamation was cut off in favor of a drawn out groan as Katara’s hands moved up and down around his erection, still hovering inches away from his body.  
  
“It’s like…it’s like you’re inside me instead of around me,” the man panted out, his hands twisting slightly in their binds. “That throbbing isn’t just – it’s you. You’re—” he gasped, his back arching.   
  
Through it all, Katara’s focus remained firmly on her task. Small furrow in her brow, she continued to ignore the man’s reactions as she manipulated the blood within him to force him into new heights of pleasure without actually laying a single finger on him.  
  
As time passed, the man’s pants and moans grew increasingly desperate, until he finally let out a pained cry through gritted teeth.  
  
“Ka—babe, I think – it’s too much. You’re pushing it too much!”  
  
A dark smirk pulled at the corner of Katara’s lips.   
  
“But the deal was to make you come.”  
  
Her words chilled something inside of Zuko, and he watched with wide eyes as she continued her efforts.   
  
Even as the man cried out and squirmed about, she calmly remained seated, changing her position only when the thrashing movement of his thighs became too much underneath her.  
  
The man seemed torn between thrusting up between her hands, shifting his hips about to try and make her actually _touch_ him, and attempting to move his body away for relief from the intensity of what he was going through. He soon resorted to begging.  
  
“I’m too hard!” he gasped out. “It’s too much! It burns – I can’t – _shit_ – babe, please! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Just—”  
  
His pleas were cut off as she increased her movements with an almost frightening intensity before abruptly stopping and holding her position. For a moment, it seemed as if the video had frozen before Zuko noticed the man’s mouth slowly widening into a silent scream.  
  
And then his orgasm hit. His body remained still and tensed even as his cum shot from his cock at a fast enough pace that left the camera unable to catch its trajectory. It continued on for far longer than what anyone would consider normal, ending with a series of audible gasps as the man’s chest heaved while he gulped down air before tensing up again as Katara forced him through what looked like a second orgasm.  
  
Even as he came down from that one, Katara’s fingers remained poised over his erection, which showed no signs of being allowed to subside. Just as the man began to relax, Katara moved one of her hands up and down, causing the man to tense right back up.  
  
“No, please!” he begged, shaking his head. “No more.” His body continued to strain further despite his words. “I can’t – I promise I won’t ask you again. Just please, let it stop.”  
  
And just like that, Katara moved her hands away.  
  
But rather than climb off of his lap, Katara leaned forward over him on her hands and knees, dipping her hips down to grind against his flagging erection.  
  
“But sweetie,” she implored mockingly. “Are you sure?”  
  
The man let out a noise that could easily be confused for either a sob or a chuckle. “You fucking tease. Yeah. Yes, I’m sure. No more.”  
  
As Katara drew back, the video ended.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, Zuko. What did you just get yourself into?
> 
> So...at the prompting of an anonymous reviewer, I started reading [The Black Games](https://m.fanfiction.net/s/7023280/1/The-Black-Games) trilogy. Holy crap, is that story amazing or what?? I LOVE the fact that it's so much more than just a romance (as is typical of most fanfics). I'm genuinely surprised over the fact that I'm enjoying it so much. The premise of The Hunger Games never interested me and I hold this weird aversion to first person POVs in general. I'm really glad I'm reading it. Reading a story directly from Katara's POV will help me write future zutara fics that need to be from her POV. (I have issues writing women...the main one being that I've never really done so before since I've only ever written m/m pairings before).
> 
> So thank you, dear anon, for asking me to read The Black Games and opening a whole new world up for me.


	7. Chapter 7

“Zuko?”  
  
Zuko nearly jumped out of his skin at the soft shoulder tap that accompanied Katara’s voice. She and Uncle were both back at the office, but he had made no attempt to seek either of them out.  
  
He was afraid his mind would run rampant with either extremely unwelcome images of the two of them together or overly welcome fantasies of just her. Both options made him want to sob out a few tears.  
  
“Sorry,” Katara apologized, quickly drawing her hand back. Spirits, her eyes were beautiful. So was her smile. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”  
  
“You didn’t.” Zuko stopped and frowned, unable to believe such an obvious lie had just popped out of his mouth. Katara’s muffled snort had him relaxing and shaking his head at himself. “I was just concentrating too hard.”  
  
Katara gave a sage nod. “Yes, it is hard to be smarter than the copy machine sometimes, isn’t it?”  
  
Zuko’s gaze shot to her as his eyes narrowed. “Laugh at me, and I’ll stop pretending I didn’t see you kick the machine last week.”  
  
Face slack with shock, Katara winced. “You saw that?”  
  
“I didn’t know you had such violence in you.” Flashes of Katara’s bloodbending video entered his mind and wiped the teasing smirk away from Zuko’s face. That hadn’t been violence, but… “Did you need me for something?” He turned away to retrieve his stack of papers.  
  
A bit thrown by his sudden shift in mood, Katara shook her head. “Uhm, yeah. Iroh sent me to remind you about the HR meeting that’s happening in…” she glanced at the clock, “…two minutes. He figured you forgot since you’re normally ten minutes early to every meeting.”  
  
Frowning down at the documents in his hand, Zuko mentally went through his schedule for the day. HR meeting? What HR meeting? HR meetings were held once a year with the company’s lawyers unless—  
  
“Wow, you really forgot?”  
  
Zuko’s glare was more out of embarrassment than anger thanks to Katara’s wide-eyed look of genuine surprise.  
  
“Jinju...the guy down on eighth…airbender…” When Zuko showed no sign of picking up on the hints being dropped, Katara let out a huff. “You guys are on the verge of facing a huge sexual harassment lawsuit thanks to this guy. Did you not get the memo HR sent out Wednesday night?”  
  
Mind whirring back to Wednesday (wasn’t that when he went down the dark path and clicked subscribe?), Zuko felt his blood pressure skyrocket as the more relevant bits of information sunk in. “We’re being _sued_?? By who? Why wasn’t I sent a follow-up email when I didn’t respond to the first one? How did I even _miss_ that email??”  
  
Dropping the stack of papers right back onto the copy machine, Zuko frantically pulled his phone from his pocket and opened his email.  
  
A light touch to his elbow snapped his attention back to Katara as he realized she was trying to gently lead him away.  
  
“We’re in Conference Room Eight.”  
  
Zuko’s shoulder’s tensed up even further despite her calm tone. “But that’s the big conference room! How many people are involved in this?!”  
  
“Will you keep your voice down?” Katara snapped. “The last thing you need is this getting leaked out to the press by an employee who overheard their boss _shouting out the details_ in the hall.”  
  
Normally, Zuko would snap right back that as someone who owned as many shares in the company as he did, it was his right to be as loud as he wanted. But Katara had a point. So instead, he took a deep breath and tried to see past the smoke that was exhaled as he repressed his temper.  
  
He intentionally ignored Katara’s pointed cough and fanning hand while she dragged him off to the meeting.  
  
+  
  
Zuko wanted nothing more than for the floor to open up and swallow him whole.  
  
The Human Resource Department was handling a case of four extremely disgruntled employees versus an extremely unremorseful airbender that had escalated completely out of hand when HR told one of the women to simply stop wearing skirts to work.  
  
“ _I_ certainly can’t help it if my sneezes are powerful enough to kick up a strong undercurrent!”  
  
Lawyers had been called, lists of each and every assault documented, and now here they were, trying to stop the women from suing the entire company for backing a scumbag instead of taking their filed complaints seriously.  
  
Luckily, Uncle Iroh knew how to ask some hard-hitting questions that left Jinju sweating in his seat, much to the satisfaction of all women present.  
  
“It was just some harmless fun! A little teasing!” Jinju insisted.  
  
“Yes, but in the words of my nephew, you don’t come to work to have fun.” Iroh’s eyes narrowed. “What you did was provocative and wrong.”  
  
“Look, it’s not like I used my bending in any kind of ‘sexual manner’ on them! And that comment on her underwear was a compliment to ease an awkward situation! She should be flattered that I think they go well with her skin tone!”  
  
Against his will, Zuko’s gaze flickered over to Katara, who caught his look and sent him a questioning frown. He immediately looked away and prayed the heat he was feeling in his face was from a rise in the room temperature and not blood rushing to his cheeks.  
  
So much of what Jinju was saying was disgusting, despicable, and wrong.   
  
And yet…there was so much of it that Zuko found himself relating to that made him wish he could just disappear from this meeting.  
  
What would Katara do if she ever learned of the things Zuko had done? How he had continuously gone back to her page like a drug and stared longingly at pictures of her body without her consent? Watched her videos and knew her naked body well enough to perfectly navigate it on their first night together if things between them ever got that far?  
  
Not that they ever would…  
  
“ _Every_ man beats off to women they know without their knowing! This is a gross infringement into my private life to even imply such a thing is out of the ordinary!”  
  
He had to tell her. He had to come clean and be better than this lowlife who thought he was well within his rights to sexually assault his coworkers just because they were pretty.  
  
“Jinju Yun, I think we’ve heard more than enough,” Zuko stated, interrupting whatever debate had been going on. “Effective immediately, your employment here is terminated.”  
  
“What?? But—”  
  
“Someone call security up here so they can escort him back to his desk to clear his things out as soon as this meeting is over. As for Human Resources, I will be making calls to ensure they undergo new training on how to properly and seriously handle complaints on sexual harassment.”  
  
For a long moment, everyone stared at Zuko in silent shock.  
  
And then Uncle Iroh’s face broke out in a giant grin. “Well then, how about we focus the rest of this meeting on how best to make it up to these poor women, hmm?”  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With the holidays pretty much over, my nose will be back to the grinding stone.
> 
> I hope everyone enjoyed the start of their winter!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shit's hitting the fan! :o

“Katara, can I talk to you for a moment?”  
  
Zuko found himself wishing he could take back those words with each second that ticked by as Katara and everyone else gathered up their things and cleared out of the conference room.  
  
This was a bad idea. He knew the consequences of his actions would probably be severe, but he couldn’t allow himself to exist on the same level as that airbender. It was dishonorable.  
  
“Are you okay?”  
  
Zuko looked up and nearly shot out of his seat. The chair bounced off a potted plant in the corner, startling Katara enough to jump back.  
  
“Sorry! Sorry!” Zuko hastily apologized. His eyes widened at his own words and he dropped down into a low bow.  
  
“Uhm…what are you doing?”  
  
Zuko straightened and did his best to look Katara in the eye. It didn’t last long and he found himself staring at her left ear instead.  
  
“I have a confession to make.”  
  
“Okay, shoot.” Katara turned and leaned back against the conference table.  
  
Swallowing thickly, Zuko tried to think of the best way possible to break this to her.  
  
“You know how Jinju said guys…well, masturbate to women they know all the time?”  
  
Katara’s eyebrows crept up to her hairline. “Yes…”  
  
“It’s…uhm…he wasn’t exactly wrong? And I…er…to you…” Zuko tried, wincing at his mangled attempt at explaining.  
  
“Zuko, it’s okay,” Katara reassured him, suddenly looking far too amused considering the severity of what he was trying to say. “Despite how wrong he was about most of the garbage that came spewing out of his mouth, I did have to agree with him about who you fantasize is definitely a private matter.” Her lips quirked up slyly. “But if that’s the case, I might have a confession to make, too.”  
  
Agni, this was definitely the wrong time to suddenly be this turned on. He let out a shaky breath and ran a hand through his hair.   
  
“That’s…that’s great. But, not quite the direction I wanted to go.”  
  
Katara’s brow furrowed for a moment before abruptly smoothing out. “Oh.” A blush stained across her cheeks and she stood up straight. “Sorry, that was wildly inappropriate. I shouldn’t have just assumed.”  
  
“No! No, you’re – I’m flattered! Really… _really_ flattered. This just isn’t—” Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. “I masturbated to you before I knew you,” he blurted.  
  
“What?” Katara frowned.  
  
“And then I didn’t stop even after we met.”  
  
Suspicion darkened her features, but Katara’s head shook with firm disbelief. “Zuko, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  
  
Here went nothing. “I know about your porn channel on that college benders site.”  
  
All color drained away from her face.  
  
“And I figured it was yours thanks to this old video I had of you waterbending in a tub from years ago.”  
  
“Oh, spirits…” Katara practically collapsed back against the table behind her. “You…I still…” her arms came up to wrap around herself.   
  
“I’m sorry!” Zuko hastily apologized, arms hovering out as if ready to catch her should she fall or pass out. “I’m so sorry! I know it was wrong, and probably disgusting of me, but I couldn’t help it, and I know that’s the most pathetic excuse out there, but I really—”  
  
“I need to go.”  
  
Zuko drew back as Katara pushed herself to her feet, refusing to meet his eye.  
  
“Katara…?”  
  
Without another word, she hastily gathered up her things and left.  
  
+  
  
The next week was the most nerve-wracking of Zuko’s life.   
  
While the days were conspicuously absent of Katara, every email notification and phone call had Zuko’s heart pounding, wondering if it was from HR, or even worse, his uncle. Had Katara filed an official complaint? Had she gone crying to Uncle? Would he be fired, as he should be, according to the new rules that were being written up in the aftermath in the airbending incident?  
  
Every night when he got home, he couldn’t even bring himself to pull out his laptop, opting instead to do any remaining work from his phone, or simply visit the gym for hours at a time until he was too exhausted to do anything more than collapse in front of the tv for half an hour before bed.  
  
He knew his fate was in Katara’s hands from this point on, and while he would respect her obvious need for space from him, he just wished he had some sort of boundaries set up or disciplinary actions to suffer through to help pull him from this odd state of limbo he was now existing in.  
  
He got his wish the following Monday.  
  
The email from Katara was a single sentence.  
  
‘ _11am meet me in Conference Room 3._ ’  
  
A quick glance at the time told him it was 10:39. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to get any work done, he abandoned his office and headed straight over.  
  
Surprisingly, he didn’t have to wait long. At 10:47, Katara showed up and looked taken back to see him there. As she paused by the door, Zuko realized her goal had probably been to beat him to his early ten-minute mark.  
  
“Hey.”  
  
His greeting was met with stony silence as Katara moved to take the seat opposite of him.  
  
Quickly catching on to the mood being set for whatever was about to happen, Zuko’s shoulder’s hunched as he waited for Katara to settle in.  
  
“What do you want?”  
  
Zuko blinked at the question. “What?”  
  
“What do you want?” Katara repeated.  
  
“I don’t…” Zuko shook his head, not understanding what she meant. “You were the one that emailed me telling me to meet you here.”  
  
Leaning back in her seat, Katara crossed her arms. “Yes, and you were the one who stumbled across my dirty little secret from years ago. I’m asking you to name the price for your silence.”  
  
Zuko’s jaw dropped. “You want me to blackmail you?”  
  
“No,” Katara admitted with a roll of her eyes. “But that’s what’s going to happen, isn’t it? You’re not about to let your uncle’s company undergo the scandal of his personal assistant doing porn.”  
  
Zuko remained silent, his eyes wide with disbelief over what he was hearing.   
  
“But I’m warning you now, if you expect me to quit, that’s something you’ll have to take up personally with Iroh first.”  
  
Anger over the fact that she thought so little of him was quickly rising.  
  
“I’m not going to make you quit!” he exclaimed, leaning forward in his chair.  
  
“Then what?” Katara shot right back. “You expect me to sleep with you? Because I can tell you right now, that’s not happening, no matter what you threaten me with.”  
  
“No! I’m not—! If anything, you should be the one blackmailing me!”  
  
Katara drew back sharply. “What? Why? For watching freely available porn on the internet that I stupidly forgot to take down?”  
  
Zuko couldn’t understand how she had it so backwards. “For watching it knowing it was you! _Because_ it was you! I connected the dots, and instead of stopping like any decent human would do, I would flirt with you here at work and then go home and go back for more! Katara, that qualifies as sexual harassment in the workplace!”  
  
He stared at her imploringly, wondering if she was recalling the new terms and conditions that had been set down in that last meeting. Wondering if she now understood that she was actually the one in power right now.  
  
“Fine,” Katara gritted out, placing her hands on the table and standing. “You want to keep your job and avoid scandal? You stay away from me and keep your mouth shut about what I did in college.”  
  
Something ached deep with him, but Zuko nodded regardless. “I had no intention of telling anyone in the first place,” he admitted. The thought alone of anyone else eagerly going to her site made him want to set fire to their computer. “But if those are your terms, I’ll accept them.”  
  
Katara huffed out a laugh, making it clear she didn’t believe him. But after eyeing his defeated posture for a long moment, she nodded her head. “Good.”  
  
Zuko waited until she left before resting his head in his hands and wondering how he had come to sink so low.


	9. Chapter 9

“I can’t take it anymore. What’s wrong with you?”  
  
In the middle of a rather excruciating set of bench presses, Zuko huffed out a breath and cast a quick glance upward long enough to catch a pink outfit and thick brunette braid. Strangely, that was more than enough for him to identify the speaker as Ty Lee, one of Azula’s old friends.  
  
Despite having moved to the same section of the city and becoming regular members of the same gym, the two of them rarely bothered to interact. So to see Ty Lee standing over him with her hands on her hips was enough for Zuko to replace the barbell and give the young woman his attention.  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“You’ve been here every day for the last two weeks! You’re scowling so hard one would think you were having trouble seeing through that black aura of yours. Just what is going on that has you so down?”  
  
Hand resting on his chest as he panted for breath, Zuko lifted an eyebrow. “How do you know I’ve been here every day?”  
  
“I work here. I’m the advanced yoga instructor,” Ty Lee said with a sudden grin.  
  
Zuko recalled when he had first met the girl back in high school. Her flexibility had fueled his imagination on a slow burn right through graduation. Now, though, as he twisted his head to get a good look at her, he felt nothing. And that was definitely saying something considering how inviting her smile was.  
  
He snorted. “I’m not attending any class you’re in charge of. You’ll break me.”  
  
“Not with a few private lessons and gentle hands on instruction.”  
  
Zuko was frowning now. “Not interested.” He reached back up to grab the barbell.  
  
Ty Lee huffed out a sigh and leaned against the bar, effectively stopping Zuko from starting his sets anew.  
  
“It’s girl problems, isn’t it?”  
  
“Don’t you have a class to teach?”  
  
“Ooh, does Azula know??”  
  
“You know we don’t talk unless we have to.”  
  
“Yeah…” Ty Lee’s peppy smile dropped at the thought. “That’s a rule you’ve really applied to pretty much everyone, isn’t it?”  
  
Zuko blinked. He wanted to deny it, but he knew it was true. Even his uncle, who he constantly harassed, was only bothered because of work-related issues. Anything extra that came from their talks was unwanted input on Uncle’s part.  
  
Katara was the first person he actually made an effort with.  
  
“Wow, you really screwed up with this one, didn’t you?” Ty Lee gestured towards her own head. “It’s written all over your face. Is it worse than your breakup with Mai?”  
  
“No.” Considering he and Katara weren’t even dating, what happened couldn’t technically be compared to any past breakups.   
  
Zuko pulled himself up into a sitting position. He wasn’t done with his sets, but he could always come back to them later. Unfortunately, as he walked away, Ty Lee followed.  
  
“I know!” she chimed, dancing around him and stepping into his path. “You and I should go out on a date!” At Zuko’s dark look, she quickly amended the suggestion. “Not like a real date! But a fake one! Two old friends catching up over lunch or dinner. And it should be at a place you know your girlfriend will be, to make her jealous!”  
  
“What?”  
  
Ty Lee’s wide-eyed look was far too deceitful in its innocence. “What? A little jealousy is healthy for any relationship! It’s practically guaranteed to help lead you two to the path of forgiveness and rectification!”  
  
Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose to stave off the oncoming headache. “Ty Lee, that would never work.”  
  
“You think so?” her head tilted to the side. “Why not?”  
  
“Because…” Because being seen with another girl after admitting to being addicted to Katara’s porn videos would make him seem like an even bigger creep. Because all it would achieve is lowering Katara’s opinion of him even further. Because…“Katara deserves better than that.”  
  
Ty Lee’s eyebrows shot up in awe. “You’ve got it pretty bad, don’t you?” she asked quietly, finally allowing the gravity of his situation to sink in. “Okay, assuming you were the one in the wrong here, have you tried apologizing to her a second time?”  
  
“Of course I—wait.” Zuko frowned. “Why would I apologize a second time? I already tried once.”  
  
“And that was probably in the heat of the moment, right?” Ty Lee shrugged. “Usually, when people are too busy seeing red, their other senses won’t work right. So while she heard your apology, it didn’t filter through. Try telling her you’re sorry again. And again, and again, in different ways, until it sinks in or she shuts you down completely.”  
  
“Huh.” A small smile graced Zuko’s lips for the first time in days. “Thanks. I think I’ll try that.”  
  
+  
  
It turned out those words were easier said than done. Because he was pretty sure the woman in question was avoiding him.  
  
To Katara’s credit, she was very subtle in her newfound aversion to Zuko. In fact, Uncle Iroh wasn’t able to figure out anything was wrong until his assistant gave herself a paper cut when trying to rapidly pull her hand back after her fingers accidentally brushed Zuko’s when handing him a stack of reports.  
  
“I’m fine! I’ll just go heal it in the bathroom.”   
  
Iroh at least had the courtesy to wait until his office door shut behind Katara to frown at his nephew.  
  
“Did you two have a fight? Normally you are practically holding hands when you exchange things with each other. To the point where I look away and give you both three seconds of privacy!”  
  
Zuko did his best to fight down his blush and ignore such a gross exaggeration. “I…may have done something to lose her trust.”  
  
Iroh’s disapproving frown brought Zuko’s shame back full-force.  
  
“I know! I know! I already tried apologizing once, but—”  
  
“Well, apologize again.”  
  
“I know!” Zuko snapped, his ire quickly getting the best of him. “I just…she’s avoiding me, so it’s hard to get a word in when all I see is the back of her head as she walks away.”  
  
“Send her flowers.”  
  
“Why?” Zuko picked up the reports and began to flip through them. “I’m trying to apologize, not woo her.”  
  
Ignoring him, Iroh stroked his beard in thought. “I believe Fire Lilies are in season…”  
  
“Uncle…” Zuko stopped what he was doing and gazed up at Iroh with his head still bowed toward the desk. “With what I did…I’m worried anything with even a hint of romance will just give her the wrong idea.”  
  
Iroh’s eyes widened in shock. “Is this something we need to talk about?”  
  
Zuko’s gaze dropped back to the papers. “No. Not yet, anyway. But don’t worry, I’ll figure something out.”  
  
Despite looking slightly dubious at his nephew’s words, Iroh gave him a solid nod and allowed the subject to drop.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone who cares to listen to my continuous excuses for delayed updates...[here is my latest excuse.](http://ahjareyn.tumblr.com/post/110312120393/im-sorry-i-havent-written-anything-lately)


	10. Chapter 10

Figuring out how to get back on Katara’s good side when he had vowed to her he would keep his distance was hard.   
  
He thought about trying with little gestures, such as leaving tea at her desk, or ordering her favorite foods for lunch, but most everything he did already fell under her job jurisdiction as a personal assistant. She showed up with her own cup of tea already in hand, and was either not in the office for lunch thanks to Iroh, or already had lunch on order for their entire floor. She kept her computer running smoothly, stayed on top of her workload with no problems (despite Iroh’s frequent days off), and was even able to deal with an irate Zhao to the point where she came out on top, despite the resulting shouting match they had in the middle of the office.  
  
Zuko had remained standing by the wall in a wistful daze, Katara’s final words of “ _Oh yeah? Watch me!!_ ” still echoing in his head until his had uncle nudged him back to the present. Iroh’s raised brow and mouthed “fire lilies” successfully chased away the lovesick mood and left Zuko more desolate than before.  
  
In a fit of pure desperation, he followed the direction Katara had stomped off to, ready to simply confront her with another apology. What he found was a rather harsh reality check of the ire mood Zhao had put her in.  
  
The copy machine was humming and beeping loudly, with a worrisome crunching coming from somewhere in its depths. Katara was rapidly pushing buttons and tapping at the touchscreen in a feeble attempt to appease it and cancel whatever job she had run through. When that didn’t work, she resorted to hitting the console while cursing at it before backing away to give the machine a swift kick.   
  
Zuko quickly hid around the corner as what could only be a snarl burst its way past Katara’s lips while she stormed off, presumably to the meditation room, where she could cool off for a while.  
  
Once sure she was gone, he slowly approached the copier to see just what the issue was. Finding the solution was generally as simple as following the guided instructions on the display screen, which Zuko did.   
  
It was a messy fix, one that required rolled up sleeves and a tossed back tie. A huge wad of crumpled papers had to be removed that were splattered with wet ink. Further investigation revealed the toner had been dislodged in the jam and ink was getting everywhere.   
  
Rather than slapping an ‘Out of Order’ sign on it and leaving it to a repairman, Zuko remained patient as he carefully removed the toner and threw it away before using several rolls of paper towels to clean the mess to the best of his ability. He then put in a new toner, checked for any further jams, and did a few test runs before making copies of the papers Katara had left behind.  
  
As the machine hummed without a hitch, Zuko smiled to himself and made his way back to his office, not noticing the one blue eye peeking at him from the opposite corner.  
  
+  
  
Unfortunately, Zuko’s change of clothes was probably several years old and didn’t quite fit well around his recent muscle gain. But it was either that or a shirt covered in ink blotches, so he suffered through the odd tightness in silence.  
  
It was a long day for the majority of the office thanks to their latest quarter coming to a close, and after Zhao’s and Katara’s display earlier, he figured it would probably be more of a relief to his staff if they didn’t see his face outside of his office since he had a tendency to scowl at people for no reason. As a result, he didn’t realize how late the hour had gotten until he heard a soft knock at his door.  
  
“What?” he growled out, irked at the unwelcome break to his flow.  
  
Whoever was on the other side hesitated before entering, and Zuko’s eyes widened in complete surprise when it turned out to be Katara standing in his doorway.  
  
“Sorry,” she said without entering the room. “I didn’t expect you to be here so late.”   
  
She looked just as tired as he felt, and it was only then that it occurred to Zuko to check the time. 8:08pm. What was she even still doing here?  
  
“My email was hacked. Is there any chance you have a hard copy of the final quarterly reports, seeing as how no one else who might have advanced access to it is here?”  
  
“Hacked? Who – that’s a huge breach in security! What—”  
  
Zuko found himself cut off at Katara’s raised hand.  
  
“According to tech, it was a virus I contracted from opening a spam email on my private account. I’ll be able to give you more information about it tomorrow. Just,” her hand came up further to rub at her forehead, “reports, by any chance? Please?”  
  
Zuko stood and hastily moved around, gathering anything that he had considered even remotely relevant to the company’s final proceedings. This led to an extremely large mess of papers in his arms as he tried to simultaneously sort through it and grab a few more printed graphs.  
  
Still at the doorway, Katara shook her head. “Wow, never mind. I’ll just get them tomorrow from Piandao or—”  
  
“Wait – Katara!” Zuko did his best not to drop everything as he put it all back down on his desk and hurriedly approached the woman. “I know you’ve had a pretty bad day, and—” he stopped before her, suddenly feeling speechless when faced head-on with her weariness. “Have you eaten yet?”  
  
Rather than provide an answer, blue eyes narrowed in suspicion.  
  
“I have pizza,” Zuko said in explanation. He turned to look around his office. At least, he was pretty sure he had ordered a pizza. He soon spotted it partially buried under files over on the coffee table by the couch.   
  
The box was cold to the touch.  
  
When he straightened up to show it off in triumph, he saw she still hadn’t moved from her place in the doorway.  
  
“Look, I promise I have everything you need, it’s just a bit disorganized at the moment. So…if you’re willing to wait, I’m offering you food while I compile the data into what you need,” he coaxed. “You can even eat it here in the corner while I work over there in complete silence if that’s what you want,” he tried when she didn’t budge.  
  
For several long seconds, Zuko didn’t dare breathe as he waited for Katara to make her decision.   
  
Her nod was barely perceptible, but it was her small step forward that spurred him into action. He cleared off the coffee table, piling up his files in a corner of the couch and opening the pizza box for her before hurrying back to his desk to give her some semblance of privacy.  
  
“You haven’t eaten any of this.”  
  
Zuko barely glanced up from his mass of papers. “I’ll eat in a bit.”  
  
“It’s cold.”  
  
“I’ve been busy.” He paused and frowned as it occurred to him that she probably meant that as a complaint more than a concern. “If you warm it up in the microwave, it’ll be just f—”  
  
Smooth brown fingers gently rest over the graph he had been determinedly staring at. Zuko looked up to find Katara standing before his desk. Her smile was small, but genuine.  
  
“Come eat cold pizza with me?”   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, after much debate, the next chapter will be changing to Katara's POV for the sake of perspective. And porn. Mostly porn. Because too many chapters have gone by without more porn happening.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In honor of Avatar's 10 year anniversary, here's the next chapter!

To say Katara’s day sucked on a completely monumental level was probably putting it lightly.  
  
She had nearly broken down in tears on three separate occasions, gotten into a screaming match with one of the company’s department heads, had her email hacked, lost nearly all the progress she had made in putting together the quarterly report for Iroh, gotten into an argument with the tech desk, and broke the copy machine – again. A trip to the meditation room had only served in taking off the edge enough to ensure she wouldn’t bite anyone else’s head off, but it was still a near thing.  
  
And now here she was, eating cold pizza with Zuko because it was the closest thing she could get to comfort food while stuck at the office. At least Iroh would have had a box of chocolates or something delivered to her if he hadn’t gone home after lunch.  
  
What she really felt like she needed at the moment was sex. A good, hard pounding to help chase away the stress.  
  
Problem was, she didn’t exactly have anyone in such a position to help her out. The one man she normally turned to was currently wrapped up in a relationship.    
  
Although, there was Zuko…  
  
Katara snuck a glance at him.  
  
When he wasn’t yelling at people, he was extremely attractive. And even when he was yelling, Katara still had this terrible habit of staring. It was just odd to see someone who would go out of his way for her, and sometimes for others, get so worked up over the smallest things. It was…cute.   
  
True, she had unfortunately burned that bridge, but if she hadn’t, there was little doubt Zuko would be willing to take her here and now if she pushed for it.  
  
His kiss would probably start out soft, hesitant, and unsure if this was reality or not. And then with an intake of breath and a hand burying itself into her hair, it would turn desperate, hot, and demanding.  
  
He would waste no time in pulling her body flush against his and she would melt into him in an instant.  
  
She wondered where in the office he would take her. On his desk? Here on the couch? Against the windows that overlooked downtown?  
  
Not that it mattered. She probably wouldn’t be cognizant of the surface thanks to being too busy trying to shove his jacket off his shoulders while he ran his hands over as much of her body as he could. Zuko seemed like the type of man who would stop unbuttoning her blouse halfway through once he realized he was free to touch and would opt to simply shove his hand up her skirt instead.  
  
Katara would love to feel his fingers discover her, but she doubted she would be able to handle such teasing today. She would much rather twist her body, wrap her legs around his hips, and grind down against him.  
  
He would probably fully take the hint then and lay her out on the surface of his choosing.  
  
It wouldn’t take long to unbutton that his shirt, leaving her free to finally run her hands over his skin, something she had been daydreaming over for months. The cut of Zuko’s suits left little to the imagination and his current shirt was practically tearing at the seams to stay fitted around his biceps as they flexed while bringing his pizza to his mouth.  
  
Her hands would drift lower, fingers dipping into his pants, where she would grab him by his buckle and pull him closer. To feel his hard length properly between her legs.  
  
Her skirt would be shoved up, his zipper pulled down, her panties hastily removed, and finally – _finally_ – he would be in her.  
  
At first, he would simply push forward, getting her body used to his girth while compulsively trying to seat himself deeper and deeper still. And then after he was fully in, he would push her legs wide and take her.  
  
His hands would be firmly wrapped around her hips to pull her into each thrust, controlling her even as she writhed and cried out with pleasure…  
  
“Is…the pizza okay?”  
  
Katara blinked back to the present and hastily chewed and swallowed the food that had been sitting in her mouth for the last few minutes.  
  
“Yes, sorry.” She shifted a bit in her seat. “It’s just been a very long day.”  
  
Zuko’s gaze softened in understanding. “I’d say you get used to it, but I doubt it’s something that would happen often as long as you’re working directly under my uncle.”  
  
For a moment, Katara simply stared. She had often wondered if Zuko hated Iroh for all the time off he took, or thought any less of him. But then she would always doubt herself when she saw just how much Zuko turned to him for advice. Was he just bitter?  
  
Katara could understand that. Despite how kind and patient Iroh always was, constantly disappearing without notice or explanation was bound to wear down on anyone’s nerves. She wished she could explain to Zuko just what was going on, but she had been sworn to secrecy.  
  
“You know, keeping up with him outside of the office is quite a job, too,” she defended instead.   
  
Irritation flashed across Zuko’s face, only to smooth out into what Katara could only describe as disturbed panic.  
  
She warily straightened. “What?”  
  
Zuko spent a moment fiddling with his pizza crust. “What, uhm…What exactly is it that you and Uncle do when you aren’t here?”  
  
It was now Katara’s turn to fidget and direct her attention to her food. She had never bothered to think up of a lie since Zuko was excellent at drawing his own conclusions. “Mostly shopping, sometimes trying a new restaurant…” The rest, Katara wasn’t allowed to share. She perked up as she thought of an excellent excuse. “Whenever I try to get him to come back to work, he ends up distracting me by teaching me pai sho in the park.”  
  
Despite how time-consuming pai sho could be, Zuko didn’t look convinced.   
  
He set his pizza down and shifted to better face Katara, putting a bit more distance between them as he moved. Katara found her eyes directed straight to his chest, where his shirt was stretched over the shape of his pectorals.   
  
“This probably isn’t going to make our situation any better, but you have every right to know.”  
  
The defeated conviction in Zuko’s voice brought Katara’s focus up to his face.  
  
“Know what?” she asked, her face heating with a sudden bought of nervousness.  
  
Zuko scooted back several more inches. He seemed almost scared of what her reaction would be.  
  
“I know you can bloodbend.”  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I didn't do Katara's POV nearly enough justice, but I tried! It'll be back to Zuko's POV after this.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO sorry about the delay! Convention season has hit, and as an avid cosplayer, my time has been completely overrun with sewing together outfits for everything. I'm about to take off for Fanime tonight, but I wanted to get this written and posted to show that I'm still around and still thinking about this story! If any of you are going to Fanime, be sure to say hi! I'll be Katara's Painted Lady at the Avatar gathering Complete with my own Blue Spirit :D
> 
> PS - due to rushed time constraints, this chapter hasn't really been edited. Sorry!

Zuko watched with trepidation as Katara’s brow wrinkled in confusion.  
  
“You know…Iroh told you?!”  
  
If Zuko wasn’t already sitting down, he was pretty sure the world would have tilted sideways with the way his heart seemed to stop.  
  
“No, but…Uncle?” Thoughts of candlelight dinners, doors leading to private hotel rooms, blindfolds, and leather cuffs filled his mind before he could stop them. It left him feeling ill. “You two…?”  
  
Katara’s entire face was now scrunched in bewilderment. “We—? What?” She held up a hand, but stopped herself from placing it on Zuko’s shoulder. “Look, from your expression, I’m guessing we aren’t on the same page of whatever we’re trying to talk about. So maybe we can both take a deep breath,“ she breathed in with him, “and you can tell me how you know about my bloodbending.”  
  
Zuko directed his gaze to the pizza box. “I saw your video…” he confessed, and braced himself for the impending backlash.  
  
Only there wasn’t any.  
  
He turned to look at Katara, only to find her staring blankly back.  
  
“What video?”  
  
Zuko was floored. Just how many videos had she made to not even recall—?  
  
“Your bloodbending one.” The blank look failed to disappear, prompting him to give further detail. “Where you had that guy blindfolded and tied on the bed, and you—” His hands came up to poorly mimic the way hers had curled. “—bloodbended him. For, uh, sex.” He cleared his throat. “Twice, I…think,” he finished lamely.  
  
Throughout the explanation, Katara’s face grew slack with disbelief, eyes wide and jaw hanging open.  
  
“Oh Yue,” she breathed, placing her elbows on her knees as she leaned forward to bury her very red cheeks in her hands. 

Zuko felt beyond terrible. This was even worse than her being angry with him. His shoulders curled forward and an arm reached out to offer comfort only to stop short, realizing his touch might not be welcomed.  
  
“I’m sorry,” he offered quietly. “I know there’s really nothing I can say to make what I’ve done any less forgivable, but—”  
  
Katara shook her head. “That’s – Zuko, of all the videos I did, I never recorded myself bloodbending.”  
  
Zuko’s breath froze. “What?”  
  
Katara dropped her hands. “I never—”  
  
“So does that mean it wasn’t you? She looked like you, so I just assumed. She even had a necklace like yours. But the video quality wasn’t all the great, so—”  
  
“No, that was definitely me,” Katara interrupted. “Me being recorded without my _consent_ – how did you even come across this??”  
  
Leaning back from her sudden ire, Zuko took a moment to answer. “Uh, someone had posted a link in the forum.”  
  
“Did that someone have a username related to ‘FreedomFighter’?” Katara bit out.  
  
“I…don’t recall.”  
  
With a snort, Katara reached forward for her pizza and bit into it almost violently.  
  
Recognizing that her abrupt anger wasn’t directed at him but at someone who had obviously broken her trust, Zuko decided to risk her wrath with a sympathetic, “Do you want to talk about it?”  
  
“Men are such cowpigs!” Katara exploded, a small bit of food flying from her mouth. “They can’t just be grateful for what I offered up online on my terms and think it’s their right to demand for more! That I owe it to them! And the second one of you realizes you _know_ me, you think it’s okay to blackmail me to ‘keep my secret’. Well I got news for you. My brother knows and beat the shit out of Jet when he found out I was being used.”  
  
Zuko’s eyes narrowed. “Is Jet that guy in the video?”  
  
Katara gave a sharp nod of her head before turning to direct her angry gaze at him. “Why?”  
  
“Because I kind of what to beat the shit out of him, too. He seriously blackmailed you to do that?” Zuko was outraged. “Ugh, and I _watched_ it! Who does that?? Who genuinely finds pleasure in preying on people like that? Was he too much of a dick to get his own girlfriend? He probably was. That sick—what’s his full name? I’ll hunt him down and end him!”  
  
He turned to Katara, fully expecting an answer, only to find her staring at him with amused skepticism.  
  
“…What?” he asked, quickly growing uncomfortable with the look.  
  
A tiny smile curled at the corner of Katara’s lips. “You really are a good guy under that grouchy face, aren’t you?”  
  
Zuko blinked. “Uhm. Considering what I’m planning on doing to this Jet guy, I would have to disagree.”  
  
Katara chuckled and shook her head. “I should get back to work,” she prompted, tossing her pizza crust back into the box.  
  
Following her lead, Zuko did the same and grabbed a napkin to clean off his fingers before gathering back up all the papers she needed.  
  
“Thank you.” Katara held up the stack of paperwork. “For this and the pizza. And for being willing to defend my honor.”  
  
Her words made Zuko realize she was just going to let this issue with Jet go. He wasn’t okay with that, but knew she couldn’t exactly do much seeing as how the video was already online. But the Jasmine Dragon was a powerful company and could easily pull together the resources needed to make it disappear. If she would allow him.  
  
“Katara?” he called out as she reached his doorway. He waited until she turned to continue. “I know you told me to keep my distance, and I will continue to respect that, but I was wondering if maybe…we could call a truce? I can be a great ally in helping you take down people like Jet – or even Zhao, since he’s a jerk, too. Not that I wouldn’t want to try and help you, regardless. It would just be easier if we could maybe talk. In passing. Sometimes.”  
  
Katara huffed out a snort. “Don’t you worry about Zhao. I’ve got my own plans for him.”  
  
Dejection caused Zuko’s shoulders to slump. “Oh, okay.”  
  
“But,” Katara took a small step towards him, “I wouldn’t mind calling a truce. Iroh’s analogies on forgiveness have been making less and less sense.”  
  
Zuko winced in embarrassment over the simple knowledge that they were related. “Sorry about him. He’s…old.”  
  
Surprised laughter burst out from Katara, and Zuko smiled at the sound. He missed it. He missed her.  
  
“I’ll see you tomorrow?” she asked with a grin.  
  
“Yeah.” He could feel his own smile matching hers. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”  
  



	13. Chapter 13

Things weren’t quite back to the way they were before, but they were definitely on the mend. When Katara walked into the meeting with coffee for both Iroh _and_ Zuko, his uncle let out an audible gasp and proceeded to beam at him for the next fifteen minutes.  
  
Zuko wanted to snap at Uncle to pay attention, but he knew it wouldn’t have nearly enough bite with the way he was fighting back a small smile of his own.  
  
Instead, he passed Katara a note, jokingly asking if it was poisoned. She didn’t respond.

Halfway through the meeting, though, things were brought to a standstill as Zuko’s coffee turned to an icy slush right as he was swallowing it, leading to a coughing fit bad enough that four different people offered him their bottles of water.

He ended up accepting Katara’s water, and tried to send her a dark glare to counter her poorly concealed smirk, but his watery eyes and red face largely ruined its effectiveness.

Not that it had ever been all that effective against her in the first place.

He sulked the rest of the meeting. Not because of Katara, necessarily, but because reheated coffee never tasted right.

When he came back to his office after a trip to the restroom several hours after the meeting, there was a new steaming cup of coffee on his desk, along with a sticky note attached to the cup.

‘ _Sorry :)_ ’

It was as Zuko felt something within his chest melt that he realized he needed to find a way to distract himself if he wanted to survive this reestablished friendship with Katara.

+

In the weeks that followed the coffee prank, things between them turned so platonic, most of the office assumed they were still in the throes of whatever fight the gossip mill said they had.

Zuko was making it a point of keeping Katara at arm’s distance, sticking to the boundaries of professionalism with a fervor that left his own head spinning. He didn’t want to mess things up a second time around and all it took was a questioning look from his uncle for Zuko to crack.

“I know! You don’t have to say anything!”

Iroh’s eyebrows rose. “You don’t even know what I was going to say!”

Zuko scoffed. ‘That I’m being pathetic,” he supplied.

Iroh actually gasped. “Zuko,” he admonished. “Those are words I would never use with you.”

Zuko hunched down in his chair. “That doesn’t make it any less true.”

“I don’t know what happened between you and Katara to cause things to cool off so much, but what I’m seeing isn’t pathetic by any means.”

“I just don’t want to screw things up again,” Zuko admitted.

“Hmm,” Iroh leaned back and began stroking his beard. “So are you acting this way out of fear?”

“No.” Zuko stubbornly looked away. “Yes? I don’t _know_ , Uncle! Maybe? I’m her boss, so there’s lines I can’t cross. But I really like her and respect her and I don’t want to make her uncomfortable.”

“Excuse you, first of all, _I’m_ her boss. Just because you’re in a higher position doesn’t automatically make you her boss as well.” Iroh’s eyes brightened. “Say, that sounded pretty good! I should go tell that one to Zhao!”

Zuko’s lip curled at the mention of Zhao’s name. The arrogant prick had more or less backed off from targeting Katara, but he still had a tendency to glare at her if they happened to be in the same room.

It didn’t help that she always made it a point to glare back.

“Secondly, I may pretend to be senile from time to time, but I’m pretty sure she likes you back.”

Zuko groaned and allowed his head to thunk forward on his desk. Because she DID like him back. And she had given him the greatest opening to what promised to be a steamy encounter – if not relationship – and he had to screw it up by taking the honorable path. What in Agni’s name was wrong with him?

“Er…if that’s not an option you can explore, you can always try to move on?” Iroh suggested. “After all, it’s as they say in the Water Tribes, ‘There’s plenty of fish in the sea! Hey! Speaking of plenty of fish, I overheard some employees talking about this website where you can meet new people who are lonely like yourself...’”

 


	14. Chapter 14

Zuko was NOT lonely. He wasn’t! He just had this terrible habit of following his uncle’s advice, which is how he wound up with a profile on Plenty of Fish.  
  
Which was a dating website.  
  
A dating website that was founded by Water Tribesmen, but free for people of all ethnicities to use.  
  
And despite having no intention of actually making use of it, he somehow found himself pulling up his calendar to schedule in a date with a girl named Jin less than a week later.  
  
Jin, who was nothing like Katara. Because Katara had no pets.  
  
Jin, on the other hand, was a nonbender, owned an owlcat, worked for Child Services, and enjoyed tea. Zuko figured someone like that would instantly gain Uncle’s approval.  
  
…Or, she _would_ gain his uncle’s approval if his uncle ever bothered to ask. Which he didn’t.  
  
Oddly enough, it was as if Uncle Iroh had forgotten that he was pestering Zuko to go on dates in the first place. Instead, he had moved on to going on daily tours of the entire facility, praising those who were doing a good job, skillfully catching and reprimanding those who weren’t doing much at all, and being a general nuisance to those who actually worked hard.  
  
Normally, Zuko would have been grateful for the reprieve – it meant he could focus on his own workload for once. But considering he was actually about to go out with a complete stranger had him far more nervous than he had any right to be. He nearly found himself wishing for a bit of senile wisdom on how to not mess things up.  
  
When the big evening finally arrived, Zuko even went as far as to visit his uncle’s office to turn it into an announcement.  
  
“Uncle, I’m—” Zuko’s eyes scanned over the room before landing on its sole occupant. “Where is he?” he demanded, fully expecting to be directed to one of the many departments the man had taken to loitering in over the last few days.  
  
Katara stopped typing long enough to send him a sly glance. “I can’t tell you.”  
  
Not expecting to be denied in such a manner, Zuko drew back. “Why not?”  
  
“Because if you knew, you’d fly off the handle and get mad. I figure it’s best to try and spare your blood pressure.”  
  
Despite Katara’s calm tone, Zuko could feel himself doing just that. Of all the times for the old man to pull his disappearing act!  
  
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Zuko mentally counted to five. He wasn’t going to yell. He wasn’t going to storm off. He wasn’t even going to whip out his phone and waste his precious time trying to hunt his uncle down. When he lowered his hand, Katara was full-on grinning at him.  
  
“You know what, it’s fine. I don’t care.” He knew his narrowed eyes and gritted teeth probably told a different story. “I’m leaving for the day, so he’s free to do whatever he wants.”  
  
Katara’s surprised gaze shot to the clock. “Over an hour early! That’s unusual for you.”  
  
“Yes, well…” Zuko found suddenly found himself very reluctant to share the news of his dinner plans and could feel the heat in his face rising. “…I’m—uh, I’ve made sure all my emails were responded to, and I’ve prioritized everything that needs to be looked at tomorrow, and—”  
  
“Zuko, it’s okay,” Katara soothingly cut in. “Most companies run pretty smoothly with a lot less input from their higher ups. Trust your employees to not run you into the ground in one evening.”  
  
Zuko frowned. “Is that Uncle’s philosophy when it comes to skipping out of the office so often?”  
  
Katara rolled her eyes in response. “Go home, Zuko. It’s okay to relax for once.”  
  
When Zuko simply hesitated in the doorway, Katara picked up her cell and waved it in the air. “I promise I’ll call if anything unpleasant pops up.”  
  
Feeling only slightly appeased, Zuko wondered if she had picked up on his slight paranoia that someone would overthrow the company if he or his uncle weren’t physically in the building to stop them. A quick glance at his watch told him he didn’t have the time to share such fears, and if he didn’t leave now, he also wouldn’t have enough time to shower.  
  
Letting out a sigh, Zuko stalked out of the building, sincerely hoping he wasn’t leaving the office in the clutches of a hidden death trap.

 

+

 

Dinner was…nice. Jin was definitely a girl who knew what she wanted. The small restaurant had been her idea, as well as the side trip to the fire fountains, and the single ice cream cone to share as he walked her home.   
  
Even Zuko could admit it had been a decently romantic evening, despite being scolded to stop looking at his phone every few minutes at the start of it.  
  
Katara had only texted him once, proclaiming the building was still standing and all the security guards were awake. Unfortunately, rather than putting his mind at ease, all it did was cause guilt to churn in Zuko’s gut.   
  
Here he was taking off early for a date with a very nice stranger and enjoying himself while Katara was stuck covering for both him and his uncle. It made Zuko feel like one of _those_ guys. He really hoped she didn’t think any less of him…  
  
“Hey.”  
  
Zuko blinked and looked over at Jin, who had relinquished her hold on his arm and was now standing on the first step to an apartment entrance.  
  
“Do you want to come on up for a little bit?”  
  
Zuko’s mind went back to Katara and he found himself missing her. They never saw each other outside of work, but he couldn’t help but wonder if she would have enjoyed a night like this.  
  
But then, it wasn’t his place to think about such things.  
  
Professionally, he didn’t have to worry about her; she had left work and was probably home by now. And wasn’t the whole purpose of dating other people so that he could move on? For the sake of her respect and their friendship?  
  
Before him, Jin’s head tilted down coyly, a move so similar to Katara’s back in their early days of flirting that it made something thud hollowly in Zuko’s chest.  
  
Mind made up, he gave a short nod and followed Jin up the stairs.  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is why you shouldn't friend-zone yourself.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I woke up to a happy Monday. I figured this is a good way to spread the cheer.

Zuko’s shirt was off and his hand had just slipped under Jin’s bra when his phone rang.  
  
Stubbornly leaving that hand right where it was, he used his left to fumble around his open pants, trying to find the pocket his cell was in. It took pulling his hips back to clear his mind enough to find it.  
  
“Sorry,” he breathed out, wincing at the flat look Jin was subjecting him to as he put the phone to his ear without checking the caller I.D.  
  
“Zuko Sozin here,” he greeted, giving Jin’s breast a soft squeeze in teasing apology.  
  
_“Zuko? I am_ so _sorry to bother you on what might be the only night you’ve taken off in your entire life—”_  
  
“Katara?” Zuko’s hand slipped free and he unconsciously wiped it against his pant leg. “What’s wrong? What is it? Are you okay??”  
  
“ _It’s not—I’m fine_ ,” Katara quickly clarified. “ _The company is fine. There’s no emergency_.” She paused. “ _Well…there’s probably no emergency. I’m hoping I’m just overreacting…_ ”  
  
Immediately fearing the worst, Zuko began to look around for his shirt. “Tell me.”  
  
_“I don’t suppose Iroh’s with you by any chance?”_  
  
Zuko froze. “You lost Uncle?”  


He hardly noticed Jin place a reassuring hand on his arm.  
  
_“I didn’t lose him!”_  
  
Zuko chuckled at how shrill Katara’s voice went when offended. “Katara, it’s okay. You’re hardly the first person to lose him.”  
  
“ _I didn’t – Look, I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I had an appointment with him and he’s almost an hour late. He_ never _misses appointments with me._ ”  
  
Flashes of candlelit dinners and too much wine entered Zuko’s mind with far more clarity than they ever had before. His face must have looked stricken because Jin squeezed his arm and moved closer, helping to bring him back to the present.  
  
“Are you…” The words tumbled from his lips without much thought. “Are you dating Uncle?”  
  
“ _Tui and La! Zuko! Be serious!!_ ”  
  
“I am being serious!” Zuko stormed over to where his shirt was. “Why in Agni’s blazes are you having ‘appointments’ with him after work hours?!”  
  
“ _It’s none of your business!_ ”  
  
“It is now if you’re calling me – interrupting my evening! – for it!” he argued back.  
  
He moved his phone away from his ear as Katara let out a cry of frustration and bent down to pick up his shirt.  
  
“ _You’re right, and I’m sorry. But can we please focus on the impending issue?_ ” Katara pleaded. “ _Iroh never misses these appointments and he isn’t answering his phone. I’m worried out of my mind right now. Do you have any idea on where he could be?_ ”  
  
Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose. A part of him wanted to reassure her that this wasn’t abnormal behavior when it came to Uncle, and that she should just let it go. So what if they missed one “appointment”? They apparently had plenty others with which to make up for it. Zuko, on the other hand, was stuck trying to make sure he ended _this_ first appointment with a good, lasting impression so that he, too, could have more appointments in the future.  
  
But he knew Katara was independent enough that she wouldn’t have called him unless she truly felt she needed his help.  
  
He let out a sigh. “Have you tried his house?”  
  
“ _He has a house phone?_ ”  
  
“No, his actual house. Have you tried going there?” He tossed his shirt back over the arm of the couch.  
  
“ _And just knocking on his door? …No._ ”  
  
“Do you have his address?”  
  
“ _I’m sure I can access it easily enough. If he doesn’t answer, what should I do? Is there anywhere else he might be?_ ”  
  
Zuko hesitated. He could easily list off some of his uncle’s favorite haunts and the names of other people she could try calling. But at the same time, he did have a key to Uncle’s place…  
  
Helplessly, his eyes met Jin’s. She caught on quick enough and moved to the front door to let him out.  
  
“It doesn’t matter if he answers or not. I’ll meet you there and let you in,” Zuko promised. “We’ll find him if only so I can wring him a new one.”  
  
A slightly hysterical laugh burst out from Katara. “ _Okay. Thank you, Zuko._ ”  
  
Frowning at the absolute sincerity in her voice, Zuko hung up and slipped the phone back into his pocket. Great. Now _he_ was worried.  
  
Shaking his head, he picked up his shirt and slipped it on. Jin moved forward to help him button it up, leaving him free to fix his rolled sleeves.  
  
“Who’s Katara?”  
  
It was asked casually enough, but Zuko knew a loaded question when he heard one.  
  
“My uncle’s secretary.” He took over buttoning. “I’m sorry. My uncle…”  
  
Jin shook her head. “I get it. Family emergency?”  
  
“I’m really hoping not,” Zuko admitted. “But he’s old enough that I’d rather be safe than sorry.”  
  
“You’re a good guy, Zuko.”   
  
Startled by the compliment, Zuko looked up to find Jin smiling at him.   
  
A crooked smile bloomed in response. “Thanks.”  
  
He straightened his shirt and pulled out his phone once more, debating on calling a cab or taking his chances on finding one quickly on the street. Giving Jin a quick kiss on the cheek, he walked out of the open door only to stop and turn around.  
  
“Oh! Uhm..” he winced. “Call me? I guess? Or…I’ll call you?”  
  
Jin rolled her eyes. “We’ll see. Keep me updated on your uncle. I hope it’s nothing serious.”  
  
Zuko was already looking down at his phone, which had buzzed with a text from Katara.

‘ _I’m on my way._ ’  
  
“Yeah. Thanks, Jin…” He looked up to see the door was already shut.  
  
Shoulders slumped, Zuko turned to hurry towards the elevator, embarrassment and anger bubbling in his chest.  
  
He was angry with Katara for unintentionally ruining his night, despite knowing it wasn’t her fault. She wasn’t used to Uncle’s ways. And like an idiot, he felt compelled to drop everything to help her out.   
  
So much for making a good first impression.  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: avatar-reyn


End file.
